All to play for still in Democratic race
The former first lady won the big states of California and New York, but the Illinois senator, who would be America’s first black president, won more states overall.
The pair will split Tuesday’s delegates 582-562 to Ms Clinton, bringing her total to 845 to Mr Obama’s 765, by the latest count.
However, the Obama camp last night projected topping Ms Clinton by 13 delegates, 847 to 834, in what is a convoluted counting system
The road ahead was long for the Democrats: It takes 2,025 delegates to claim their nomination.
In the Republican contest, John McCain won the day with victories in nine states. In the race to 1,191 delegates in order to become the party’s nominee, he now has 559, followed by Mitt Romney with 265 and Mike Huckabee with 169, estimates suggested.
His closest rival before the day started, Mr Romney was seen as the loser after a surprisingly competitive performance by former Baptist preacher Mr Huckabee saw him declare there were only two men in the Republican race — and Mr Romney was not one of them.
Ms Clinton won eight states — California, her home state of New York, neighbouring New Jersey, Massachusetts, Arizona, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Arkansas.
Clinton campaign aides declared her victory in Massachusetts “one of the biggest surprises of the night” as she took the state even after veteran Senator Ted Kennedy, former Democratic Party presidential nominee John Kerry and state governor Deval Patrick endorsed Mr Obama.
But Mr Obama still won 13 states — Illinois, Missouri, Minnesota, Georgia, Alabama, Kansas, Delaware, North Dakota, Connecticut, Colorado, Idaho, Alaska, and Utah and his share of the delegates.
Ms Clinton said Americans voted “not just to make history but to remake America”.
She added: “Give us this nation to heal, this world to lead, this moment to seize. I know we’re ready.”
Adopting a sombre tone, she asked her supporters to keep the victims of the “horrible” tornados which swept through five states on Super Tuesday in their prayers. More than 40 people were killed.
In Chicago, Illinois, Mr Obama, said that, regardless of the results: “Our time has come. Our time has come, our movement is real and change is coming to America,” he said.
He congratulated Ms Clinton and said she was a friend who was running “an outstanding race”.
“But this fall we owe the American people a real choice,” he said.
Mr Obama told supporters it was a choice of going into the general election with Republicans and Independents “already united against us” or “going against their nominee with a campaign that has united Americans of all parties, from all backgrounds, from all races, from all religions around a common purpose”.
He also said his thoughts and prayers were with the victims of the severe weather.
In the Republican contest, former Vietnam prisoner of war Mr McCain, whose campaign was dismissed as virtually over last summer, won delegate-rich California along with eight other states.
This included a series of key states — including his home state of Arizona, Missouri, Delaware, New Jersey, and New York — where he will take more than 280 delegates.
Mr McCain also won Illinois, Connecticut and Oklahoma.
“Tonight my friends, we’ve won a number of important victories in the closest thing we’ve ever had to a national primary,” he said.
“We’ve won some of the biggest states in the country.
“We’ve won primaries in the west, the south, the mid-west and the north-east; and while I’ve never minded the role of the underdog, and have relished as much as anyone come-from-behind wins, tonight I think we must get used to the idea that we are the Republican party front-runner for the nomination.
“And I don’t really mind it one bit.”
Mr McCain congratulated rivals Mike Huckabee — who he said “surprised the rest of us” with wins in West Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Georgia and Alabama — and Mitt Romney, who won Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Alaska, Colorado, North Dakota and Utah.
Mitt Romney told his supporters the “one thing that’s clear is this campaign’s going on”.
To chants of “Mitt, Mitt, Mitt”, he said: “I think there were some people who thought it was all going to be done tonight, but it’s not all done tonight, we’re going to keep on battling, we’re going to go all the way to the convention and we’re going to win this thing and we’re going to get to the White House.”
Speaking at his campaign headquarters in Little Rock, Arkansas, Mr Huckabee said: “We’re proving that we’re still on our feet and much to the amazement of many, we’re getting there folks, we’re getting there.”
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